Choral Classics from Cambridge CD 1: Lamentations The history of music in the Western Church is essentially the history of Gregorian chant. Developed from Hebrew chanting, it found a stable Christian form as early as the seventh century. Initially a means of communicating to a largely illiterate congregation the Psalms and Holy Scripture, in the clear and unequivocal manner that sung speech allows, plainsong became an art form in itself, developed as much through aural tradition as by means of notation. From 800 and 1300 it assumed melodic and rhythmic shapes of extraordinary and compelling beauty, often as elaborate and decorative as the great cathedrals and abbeys with which it became identified. In the Middle Ages, polyphonic decoration was gradually added to the chant, which nonetheless remained the essential music of the liturgy. By the late 16th century, this polyphonic elaboration had to an extent undermined the supremacy of chant, especially in the reformed, Protestant church. Though plainsong remained the basis of the Catholic liturgy (and continued for some time to influence the music of composers for the Protestant churches), freely-composed polyphonic works became increasingly popular. This, then, is the background to the present recording, in which chant is combined with a variety of polyphonic compositions. The death of a loved one is one of the most distressing experiences in human existence, and it is possibly for this reason that composers down the centuries have repeatedly seized on this theme and set these texts to create their most beautiful and deeply affecting works. Whether relating to a murdered son (When David heard) or the Virgin Mary, seeing her son die on the cross (Stabat Mater) – it is a universally affecting grief that emerges from their music. What remains behind, according to some other texts, such as the Miserere, is a belief in a higher power, and submission to it. The Miserere (Psalm 51) belongs to the Tenebrae – texts that are sung on the last three days of Holy Week. There is a famous story connected with the setting that Gregorio Allegri made for the Papal Chapel in Rome: the Pope was so conscious of the extraordinary beauty of this piece that he made a decree that no copy of the music was to leave the chapel. According to tradition, Mozart was the first person to make the piece known to the wider world, when he wrote it down from memory. Another piece that for a long time could only be heard in the Papal Chapel was Palestrina’s two-choir setting of the Stabat Mater. Palestrina wrote this piece at the end of his life for Pope Gregory XIV, who reigned from 1590 to 1592. It was only in 1770, however, that the English musicologist Charles Burney was able to obtain a copy, and have it printed and make the music known. This is one of the most striking settings of the medieval text, in which Mary’s grief is depicted in a highly dramatic manner. It was during Palestrina’s lifetime that that Church in England broke away from Rome. Consequently, the existing repertoire of Latin motets and Masses was declared to be unusable, and instead, English hymns and liturgy alone were to be adopted. Thomas Weelkes’s When David heard is an outstanding example of a hymn that echoes the intimate style of a madrigal. The hushed second section evokes the solitude in which David must endure his pain at the death of his son Absalom. Another example of a madrigal-hymn is How are the mighty fallen by Robert Ramsey, a composer of whom very little is known – only that he was organist at Trinity College, Cambridge from 1628 to 1644. Translation: Kenneth Chalmers 1
CD 2: Henry Purcell In 1534, under the reign of King Henry VIII, the English Church formally broke with the Roman Catholic congregation. This also had an impact on music. In England, the traditional motet on a Latin text made way for the so-called ‘anthem’. This new genre, on an English text, was to be practised for a long period, up to the time of Handel in the 18th century. Henry Purcell grew up with the anthems of his predecessors William Byrd, Thomas Tallis and Orlando Gibbons. He copied and studied these composers carefully. When composing anthems himself, he had to search for a new form to please King Charles II, who was partial to grand settings for soloists, massive choirs and orchestral accompaniments. From 1682, the year of his appointment as organist at the Royal Chapel, to 1689, when the English king was forced off the throne by William III, Purcell wrote about 70 so-called ‘verse anthems’. A feature of the new style he introduced was the extensive use of verse sections for solo voices. His anthems were composed in such a manner that performances both with and without strings were possible, strings only being required when the king was present. The main function of the string orchestra was to provide an overture and ritornellos. According to the records, many of Purcell’s anthems were sung and played in Westminster Abbey. Four of the anthems recorded here date from the period 1680–3. One of these, O God, Thou art my God, is a ‘full anthem’, still written in the traditional polyphonic style, with few moments for soloists. This work contrasts heavily with the other anthems (Hear my prayer, O Lord, Remember not, Lord, our offences and Lord, how long wilt Thou be angry?), in which there is room for declamation and personal expression. With sections for solo voices, duets and antiphonal settings, this music is more secular, even moving towards opera. The verse anthems are also characterized by dramatic, unexpected harmonic progressions and, at times, an imaginative treatment of the text. 17th-century listeners must have been startled by the way Purcell intensified emotions evoked by the text of his music. Especially Man that is born of a woman, from Purcell’s Funeral Sentences, must have been very impressive to them. The three phrases used in this remarkable anthem originated from the text of the funeral Mass. They were traditionally sung or spoken at the open grave of the deceased. The moving words are intensified by the music by way of expressive musical underlinings, such as very low notes at the words ‘fall’ and ‘secrets’, and an extreme level of dissonance at ‘displeased’. Chromatic progressions accompany the mourning words ‘the bitter pains of eternal death’. The emotional depth of this music is typical of the Funeral Sentences as a whole. They were written for the burial of Queen Mary, who had been much loved, and whose death from smallpox in 1694 left the entire population grief-stricken. The Te Deum and Jubilate, composed for the Holy Mass that was held on the eve of Saint Cecilia’s Day (22 November) in 1694, and commissioned by the Gentlemen Amateurs of Music, was an even greater step towards the secularization of the anthem. This work, originally scored for trumpets and strings, is on a liturgical text, but functioned as a glorification of the (alleged) patroness of music, Saint Cecilia. Purcell divided the text into sections and set each of these to music of a very different nature. That the well-established vocal polyphony was no longer suitable for Purcell is already shown in the opening bars of the Te Deum, in which ‘We praise thee, O God’ is not, as expected, a massive fugue, but an expressive dialogue for solo voices. A striking passage is ‘Vouchsafe, O Lord’, a silent reflection worked out in the form of an aria. This section is followed by the chorus ‘Let me never be confounded’, ingeniously illustrated by Purcell with a short fugato. Central sections in the Jubilate are the duets ‘Serve the Lord with gladness’ and ‘For the Lord is gracious’, which are followed by an exuberant ‘Glory be to the Father’. Jos van der Zanden 2
CD 3: Evensong and Vespers at King’s The change in the forms of worship of the English church consequent upon the Reformation occurred within ten years of the completion by Henry VIII of King’s College Chapel. The services or ‘offices’ of the medieval church were reduced in the Anglican church to two: Morning and Evening Prayer. This recording features Evening Prayer – Evensong – as it might be sung today in the chapel, albeit without the spoken parts – lessons and prayers. By way of comparison, Vespers, still the evening office of the Roman Catholic church, is also included, again without the spoken parts, and with some of the psalms omitted through lack of space. The close relationship between the two services will readily be seen. An initial call to worship, ‘O Lord, open thou our lips’ and ‘Deus in adjutorium’, leads into the psalmody. The use of the psalms dates back not only to early Christian liturgical tradition, but to Jewish patterns of worship also. Special psalms are set for particular seasons and days in the church’s year. In Psalm 50, the Advent theme of God as judge is presented. In Vespers, for a feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the liturgical theme is carried mainly by the antiphons which are sung before and after each psalm. This theme continues through the Bible reading and Hymn, and into the antiphon to the canticle Magnificat. Evening Prayer is a conflation of Vespers and the late evening office of Compline, and includes from the latter a second canticle, the Nunc Dimittis. A second lesson was introduced, so that both Old and New Testaments could be represented. These lessons were much longer than those in the old offices, demonstrating the increased emphasis laid on scripture in the reformed churches. After prayers, Vespers often ends with a Marian antiphon, while at Evensong an anthem follows, reflecting, ideally, the theme of the day. Both services end with a ‘dismissal’. The services can be ‘recited without note’, that is, said. But in b oth the Roman Catholic and Anglican traditions there exists a great body of music for them. Vespers can be sung entirely in plainsong. At the other extreme are elaborate settings, such as Monteverdi’s ‘Vespers of 1610’ In the music chosen here, there is a progression from the relative austerity of the chant, through settings of the Hymn and Magnificat in which chant and polyphony alternate, to the wholly polyphonic Salve Regina. All the polyphony draws thematic material from the chant. The composers represented are, respectively, German, Spanish and Italian. The repertoire selected for Evensong draws principally on the work of two figures both born towards the end of the nineteenth century, who, as composers, performers and teachers, were part of the great renaissance in English music in their day. Their richly chromatic harmonies, however, display their close familiarity with Wagner and Brahms.
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The contrasted organ pieces which frame the sequence of choral music show something of the versatility of the chapel organ, which can provide the sequence and clarity needed for Byrd, the orchestral colour envisaged by Dyson and Bairstow, and an important ingredient in ‘painting’ the words of the psalms, and the dynamic range required in Howells. The daily singing of Evensong is the raison d’être of our many collegiate and cathedral choirs. The purpose and value of this activity is summed up by John Drury, formerly Dean of King’s, as he describes what we need to do to enter into the spirit of the service: ‘First we have to be patient and relaxed enough to allow a long tradition to have its say. Then we should allow our own thoughts and feelings to become closer to us than life outside admits. These two things are not separate. In the tradition there are, along with what is strange, strong expressions of our basic feelings about ourselves and God. And it is precisely the cool and ancient order of services which gives a space and a frame, as well as cues, for the reflections on our regrets and hopes and gratitudes. The best analogy of it is in a relation of love. There, as here, we find ourselves by attending to another. So we may learn a little of what we need and enjoy everywhere.’ Stephen Cleobury
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CD 4: Sacred Choral Favourites from St John’s College, Cambridge St John’s College is one of the ancient colleges of the University of Cambridge. It was built on the site of the Augustinian Hospital of Saint John, founded in the 12th century for the poor and infirm, and it received its charter as a college in 1511. From that time until the present day it has possessed a college choir whose main duty is to sing the daily services in the College Chapel during University Term. The Choir has become one of the most famous choirs in the world and has made some 100 recordings. No particular style is favoured, and the Choir has built an enviable reputation for possessing a comprehensive repertoire stretching from the 15th century to the present day. The College Choir consists of 16 choristers and four probationers. These latter are small boys aged between seven and nine years who become choristers as vacancies arise. They are elected at voice trials which attract boys from all over the country, and they become boarders at St John’s College School, founded primarily to educate choristers. The school maintains a high academic tradition. There is great competition for these places, not only for their financial rewards, but also for the unique musical training which choristers of St John’s receive.
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CD 5: Rutter · Berstein · Poulenc In 1942 Francis Poulenc wrote to a friend: I know perfectly well that I’m not one of those composers who have made harmonic innovations like Igor (Stravinsky), Ravel or Debussy, but I think there’s room for new music which doesn’t mind using other people’s chords. Wasn’t that the case with Mozart and Schubert?1 The music of Leonard Bernstein and John Rutter can equally be said to reflect a similar sentiment. The performances brought together on the present disc include both a cappella motets and large-scale works scored for chorus, accompanied by a variety of instrumental combinations. Despite these differences and the strongly individual character of each composer’s music, there is one feature that all the music has in common, namely the immediacy of contact that is made with the listener. Sophisticated the music may be, but never at the expense of creating an instant impression or of serving the texts. John Rutter, though not himself a singer, was an undergraduate at Cambridge. Surrounded by singers and fine choirs, he quickly became a prolific choral composer. An early association with David Willcocks resulted in a carol book collaboration, Carols for Choirs II, and in due course to a long and fruitful connection with the American Choral Directors Association and with many leading American choirs which commissioned new pieces from him. Despite its text, taken from the Ordinary of the Mass, Gloria was written as a concert work. It was commissioned by the Voices of Mel Olson, Omaha, Nebraska, and received its first performance in 1974, conducted by the composer. Deriving its musical material from Gregorian chant, the three movements reflect both the joy and the meditative qualities inherent in the text. The accompaniment, for brass, timpani, percussion and organ, employs instruments so often called upon in the psalms to aid the praise of God: ‘Praise him with the sound of the trumpet … praise him upon the loud cymbals … let everything that hath breath praise the Lord’ (Psalm 150). Descended from a long line of Hasidim who were followers of Israel ben Eliezer, an 18th-century charismatic leader who would redefine traditional Jewish values, Leonard Bernstein grew up in a family where worship was regarded as a joyful experience. This sense of celebration in his faith remained with Bernstein throughout his life and, though he was never perhaps deeply religious in a conventional sense, his faith remained an important source of inspiration to him. It was therefore unsurprising that, when in 1964 Dean Walter Hussey of Chichester Cathedral commissioned him to write a piece for the three choirs of Chichester, Salisbury and Winchester for performance at the 1965 Southern Cathedrals Festival, he should turn to Hebrew psalms for inspiration. Hussey wrote to Bernstein, saying ‘I hope you feel quite free to write as you wish and will in no way feel inhibited by circumstances. I think many of us would be very delighted if there was a hint of West Side Story about the music.’2 Bernstein was happy to oblige. Borrowing from the discarded chorus in the Prologue to West Side Story for the male chorus in the second movement of the Psalms and from the projected (but unfinished) musical The Skin of Our Teeth for the principal material of all three movements, he created a work which the New York Herald Tribune described as ‘extremely direct and simple and very beautiful’. The 6
Chichester Psalms, heard in this performance in the version for male alto, chorus, harp, percussion and organ, consists of six extracts from the Psalms, set in three contrasted movements. The first, a joyous celebration of faith, is an exuberant dance, complete with bongos (which doubtless raised a few eyebrows amongst the Sussex gentry attending the first performance in Chichester Cathedral). In the second movement Bernstein reset two Broadway songs. The lyric: Spring will come again, Summer then will follow: birds will come again, nesting in the hollow, once again we’ll know all we know after the Winter comes Spring. became the final section of the setting of Psalm 23 for alto solo, beginning Naf’shi y’shovev (He restoreth my soul), whilst Stephen Sondheim’s lyric ‘Mix – make a mess of ‘em! Make the sons of bitches pay’ became the male chorus Lamah rag’shu goyim? (Why do the nations rage?). The third movement, after a triumphant organ fanfare, is a serene meditation on the virtues of faith through common purpose, Hineh mah tov (Behold how good). The Chichester Psalms became an instant success on both sides of the Atlantic and have remained a unique contribution to the sacred choral repertoire. The critic Desmond Shawe-Taylor, writing after the British premiere, observed that Bernstein was a religious composer ‘of the kind Luther must have had in mind when he grudged the devil all the best tunes’3. It was the kind of comment that Walter Hussey, responsible for so many major artistic commissions in British churches, including sculpture by Henry Moore and stained glass by Marc Chagall, doubtless appreciated. Born in 1899 to an artistic Parisian mother and a devout father from southern France, Poulenc exhibits in his music a subtle blend of the two influences – the ‘chic’ from his mother, a profound spirituality from the Mediterranean religious background of his father. A member of the group of composers dubbed by Jean Cocteau ‘Les Six’, his music came to embody the principles of the new, post-war French music expounded by Cocteau in his manifesto Le Coq et l’Arlequin. This directed that music was to reflect everyday life, was to learn from the music hall, the circus and the jazz band, and that its principal qualities were to be dryness, brevity and straightforwardness. Whilst these elements are evident throughout Poulenc’s output, in his sacred choral music there is an extra element of devotional simplicity, achieved with the help of plainsong-like melodies and modal harmony. The Litanies à la Vierge Noire (de Rocamadour) were composed in August 1935, following a visit to the Shrine of the Black Virgin which Poulenc made on hearing of the tragic death of his friend, the critic Pierre-Octave Ferroud, in an horrific car crash. The visit to Rocamadour rekindled in him a spirituality which had lain dormant since the end of the war. Describing the Black Virgin as the source of inspiration for all his religious works, the Litanies were Poulenc’s first mature choral pieces and were followed at regular intervals for the remainder of his life by other sacred pieces. In My Friends and Myself, a series of conversations assembled by Stéphane Audel, Poulenc states, perhaps prophetically:
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Forgive my lack of modesty, but I have a feeling that in that sphere (choral and religious works) I’ve produced something new, and I’m not far off thinking that if people are still interested in my music fifty years from now, it’ll be more in the Stabat Mater than in the Mouvements perpetuels.4 Of the Litanies à la Vierge Noire he wrote: In this work I have tried to depict the mood of ‘country devotion’ that so deeply struck me in the mountain locale (Rocamadour). This is why this invocation must be sung simply and unpretentiously.5 The Litanies are set for three-part women’s (or children’s) voices, accompanied by organ, alternately providing an unobtrusive accompaniment for the voices and interjections (some quite dramatic) between the vocal phrases. The musical style is melodic and chordal, counterpoint being foreign to his style. The harmonic style is essentially non-chromatic, though it is coloured by a certain modal quality and use of ‘wrong’ notes which are so much the hallmark of Poulenc’s music. Above all, the Litanies deliberately evoke the rustic simplicity of French peasant devotions. In 1941 Poulenc composed the two motets Exsultate Deo and Salve Regina, dedicating them to his friends, Georges and Hélène Salles. Unusually (for Poulenc), Exsultate Deo begins with a series of Palestrinian contrapuntal entries, changes in style to the familiar short chordal phrases, complete with energetic and punctuating rests. The robust vitality of this popular motet contrasts sharply with Salve Regina, a much more serene piece which reflects the Marian text, and its style is reminiscent of the Mass in G, written a few years earlier. The Quatre Petites Prières de Saint François d’Assise were written in 1948 for the monastery of Champfleury, where Poulenc’s great-nephew was a monk. Writing in Entretiens, he says: Certainly I venerate Saint Francis but he intimidates me a bit. In any case, in setting his marvellously touching little prayers to music, I wished to perform an act of humility. Thus in the fourth piece, for example, a simple tenor solo is heard at the beginning, like a monk leading his brothers to prayer.6 Like the Litanies, the Quatre Prières are settings of rustic peasant prayers. The musical style is somewhat similar, consisting of short melodic ideas set in to quasi-modal harmony. The textures that Poulenc creates for the male-voice group (which includes a high baritone part in addition to tenors and basses) are striking and highly individual. The set of four motets has come to be regarded as one of the major contributions to the male-voice literature in the twentieth century. © T.C. Brown
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1 Francis Poulenc: Correspondance 1915–1963 (Paris, Éditions du Seuil, 1967), p.128 2 Humphrey Burton: Leonard Bernstein (New York, Doubleday, 1994), p.348 3 Burton: Bernstein, p.349 4 Francis Poulenc: My Friends and Myself – Conversations assembled by Stéphane Audel, trans. James Harding (Engl. Ed. London, Dobson, 1978), p.56 5 Francis Poulenc: Entretiens avec Claude Rostand (Paris, Juillard, 1954), p.109 6 Francis Poulenc: Entretiens, p.159
Choir of Clare College, Cambridge Music has played an increasingly important role in the life of Clare College, in the University of Cambridge, especially since the creation of a mixed voice choir in 1971. Clare College Choir has gained a wide reputation for excellence and is now regarded as one of the leading university choral groups in the United Kingdom. Although it exists primarily to sing choral services in the college chapel during university term, in addition it gives regular concerts both at home and abroad as well as contributing to the Choral Evensongs broadcast on BBC Radio 3. It has undertaken many overseas tours, especially to Germany, Italy and to the United States. In 1983 the choir was awarded the Gran Premio ‘Città d’Arezzo’ at the 31st International Choral Competition in Arezzo. In 1991 Clare College Choir visited Russia and Latvia for the first time, concluding its tour with a televised concert from the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire. In 1994 the choir performed Schubert’s Mass in E flat in the Cheltenham Festival, and Handel’s Theodora in the Lufthansa Festival in St James’s, Piccadilly. For the past five years it has appeared in the international Handel Festival in Karlsruhe, in performances of Handel oratorios, directed by various conductors including Nicholas McGegan, Roy Goodman and René Jacobs. In 1995, conducted by Tim Brown, it performed Israel in Egypt in the festival’s final concert in the Staatstheater, as well as a recital of English church music. Clare College Choir has made several recordings, including choral works by Pelham Humfrey, Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, motets by Richard Dering, Tudor anthems and Palestrina’s Mass Assumpta est Maria. The choir has made a number of television programmes and CD recordings for Columns Classics.
Corydon Singers Corydon Singers are widely recognized as one of the foremost chamber choirs in the UK, and their recordings and performances have attracted a stream of enthusiastic superlatives from reviewers across the world. Since they were founded in 1973 they have been praised frequently for their precision and discipline, their rich blend and warm legato style, their attention to vocal colour and the uninhibited vigour which go to make up their distinctive sound.
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The particular qualities of Corydon Singers come from their founder and Musical director, Matthew Best, and are very much a fusion of the various elements and influences of his musical background. Matthew is unique in the UK in having pursued the dual roles of singer and conductor throughout his career. After a year singing with the Monteverdi Choir, he spent three years as a Choral Scholar at King’s College, Cambridge, followed by a year at the National Opera Studio. From there he became one of the youngest-ever principals with the Royal Opera and has since developed a very successful career in oratorio and opera throughout Europe. It is this experience with the very best in British choirs and many of the world’s finest solo singers, together with the consistency of preparation and direction which his leadership over 20 years has brought, which has formed Corydon Singers’ distinctive style. Their numerous recordings for Hyperion Records have earned the consistent approval of the press in the UK, Europe, the USA and Japan. Almost all of their recordings have reached the shortlist for the Choral Award in The Gramophone and they have twice been runner-up – in 1984 with a recording of the Requiem by Herbert Howells and in 1989 with Britten’s St Nicolas. Their 1990 recording of Vaughan Williams was selected as Choral Record of the Year by both The Guardian and The Sunday Times and was nominated for a Brit Award. Their recording of the Rachmaninov Vespers was chosen as the preferred version in Radio 3’s Building a Library series and their Bruckner Te Deum was selected as one of the releases of 1993 by Record Review. Corydon Singers give regular concerts in London and have appeared at the Fribourg Festival of Sacred Music in Switzerland, the City of London Festival, the Southwark Festival, the Three Choirs Festival and the Wratislavia Cantans Festival in Poland.
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